Sunday, March 16, 2008

I have been looking around for affordable, durable, full-coverage fenders -- preferably with mudflaps. The SKS Commuter Fenders (35mm wide) were one of the few that met my criteria, mostly on price, fitment and coverage. The support arms for the front fender were excessively long and required me to chop them short with a Dremel cut-off wheel so that my feet don't hit them. Other than that, install was as simple as can be without being snap-on fenders. It came not only with the basic hardware needed to install, but with various lengths of bolts and optional brackets to make installation possible on different kinds of bicycles.

Really, I'm amazed at the refinement that went into my Trek 1200, though. Even the brace behind the bottom bracket was perfectly located and already drilled and tapped for attaching a fender. The rear eyelets easily accommodate both the rack and the fender.

So, there you have it. I went for it. I may have said many times that I don't need them, that I don't like them, or that I don't even want them. But we'll see how I like these. Look for a full review after a few rainy rides. It looks like I'll get my first shot tomorrow.

9 comments:

The arms come long on purpose. The fenders are sold to fit a wide variety of frame configurations. SKS does a good job supplying what is needed to meet most frame/fender hook ups.

I am suprised though you had to use a dremel tool. If memory serves, they used to have increment indents on the arms near the end so all you had to do was snap them off at the desired length. Of course I may have my fenders mixed up here. There are so many different ones out there, I may be confusing SKS with another company that aslo makes fenders.

Crum: I understand why they did it, and it's a Good Thing (tm). I wasn't paying much attention to the arms of the other fenders I looked at, but these definitely didn't have the notches you're speaking of. Maybe SKS's RaceBlades have them? They don't provide nearly as much cover, though.

Dave: I didn't get to ride in the rain this morning, but it's raining pretty good now. They'll probably get a proper test this evening. I'm also hitting the Monday Night Casa Paloma ride.

Sirrus: It's not your imagination. I have heel strike with my panniers (not shown, as they'd hide the fenders) if the rack isn't adjusted back like that a ways. This setup works really well but it looks kind of goofy when the saddlebags are off the bike.

I think you'll love having fenders, actually I'm surprised you rode all winter without them. I have full fenders on my old mountain bike that's been my commuter, but only a half front fender fits well on my road bike. Fortunately my rear rack on that bike sort of acts as a fender as well, but it's not angled back like yours is.

I wouldn't want to ride in the rain without some kind of fenders. You can still get wet, but the fenders help a lot. I like that yours have built-in mud flaps, mine don't have those.

I'm not much for riding in the rain and I try to avoid it at all costs; however, for riding after the rain has ceased fenders are the only way to go! They are also good when the humidity is high (Fog) when the water vapor condenses out onto the cold asphalt/concrete.. They are also great when there is runoff (from car washing, broken watermain, ID10T over watering his or her yard) coming into the roadway.

Of the bikes I currently ride (four), only the Pugsley doesn't have fenders. And there are times I wish there were fenders made for it. Nobody ever hears me complaining about riding in the rain or making excuses for why I can't ride when it's raining. Fenders are a beautiful thing.

Privacy Policy

This site is driven by software that uses third-party cookies from Google (Blogger, AdSense, Feedburner and their associates.) Cookies are small pieces of non-executable data stored by your web browser, often for the purpose of storing preferences or data from previous visits to a site. No individual user is directly tracked by this or any other means, but I do use the aggregate data for statistics purposes.

By leaving a link or e-mail address in my comments (including your blogger profile or website URL), you acknowledge that the published comment and associated links will be available to the public and that they will likely be clicked on.

Sponsors

RSS Feed

Contact me!

If you'd like to contact me outside the comments, leave a message and I'll respond. Oh yeah, if you're going to send me a URL, ask me if you can send me one first, then send it when I reply. If not, my spam troll will eat your fingers for breakfast.